Academic Integrity: Importance, Implications of Misconduct, and Reflection on Game Design

This report discusses the importance of academic integrity, implications of misconduct, and reflection on game design. It covers the core values of academic integrity, importance in higher education, and types of academic misconduct. The report also reflects on the difficulties encountered and skills learned while producing a game for creating knowledge about integrity in students.

BMP3003
Further Academic Skills
Academic Integrity
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Contents
Introduction 3
Section 1 3-6
An Introduction including a description of Academic Integrity 3
A discussion of the importance of academic integrity in higher education
4
Discuss the implications of academic misconduct 5
Section 2 6-9
Reflect on the steps you have taken, and difficulties encountered in
producing the game for Assignment 2 6
Reflect on the skills you have learned this academic year and those
emphasized in producing your game 7
Conclusion 8
References 9

Introduction
Academic skills can be defined as a collection of habits, strategies and time
management techniques through which a person learns and absorbs knowledge. It can be
related to writing a report , preparing presentation or conducting any research by
implementing communication. Studying, planning and technical skills. These capabilities
helps a person in every walk of life even beyond educational terms (Goodfellow, and et. al.,
2018). This report is divided into two sections. First section discuses about the importance of
academic integrity and implications of its misconduct. Second section presents difficulties
encountered and skills learned while producing a game for creating knowledge about
integrity in students.
Section 1
An Introduction including a description of Academic Integrity
Academic integrity refers to an act of showing fairness and honesty while involving in
educational activities. This code is focused at controlling any kind of misconduct and
generating knowledge among the users of that data. It asks professors, students and other
people to apply moral code of conduct and adopt a feeling of responsibility, respect and
honesty for academic data in their behavior. But when this integrity is not shown in attitude,
it attracts a feeling of suspicion about integrity rather than trust or growth. Whenever a person
do not follows the rule of integrity, it is considered as an act of academic misconduct and it
is punishable (Alemán Juárez, Becerra Mariscal and García Higuera, 2019). According to
this, a person have to provide the name of a person to whom that stuff belong to or refrains it
from presenting someone other information in its own name. There are five core values of
Academic Integrity. These are:
 Honesty- This value demands honesty in the behavior of students which means they
should show truthful attitude about the ideas and information used by them. They
should give credit to that person whose data has been used by them. Copying the
content or presenting someone others thoughts as its own are violation to this
attribute. They should create their own knowledge on the basis of the research
conducted by them (Dixon and George, 2021).
 Responsibility- This means to take active role in creating own learning through
information used for conducting research. It is the responsibility of user to
acknowledge that person by citing its name in the used data of whom that information

has been used. It urges the user of content to promote among others and adopt
integrity in its own behavior (Seaton, 2019).
 Trust- This means that work should be free from errors which means all the members
must follow various rules and regulations of policies fairly and avoiding any kind of
faults while demonstrating accuracy (Kumar, 2021).
 Respect-It means to give respect to all the fellow students, professors and work,
views and ideas of other people. It motivates them towards giving respect and credit
to others for using there data by not taking reward of there data in its own name
(Sanni-Anibire, 2021).
 Fairness- This attitude comes in behavior of individual when it feels that all people
are treated fairly by professors and there will no biases. This feeling creates an
attribute of security and people tends to give credits to the real owner of data (Ayala-
Enríquez and et.al., 2020).
A discussion of the importance of academic integrity in higher education
Adopting the practice of academic integrity in general life or any educational scenario
because it ensures that student or learner of information is absorbing the motive of knowledge
provided. It makes students aware about the concept that they must not gain advantage for the
data which does not belong to them and should give respect to the owner of information by
giving it its credit (Daramola and et.al., 2018). Following are some of the points of
importance of academic integrity which are helpful in higher education:
 Promotes the development of new ideas- Academic integrity urges the users of data
not to use some other persons thoughts in its own name, which forces them to create
their own ideas through brainstorming. This attribute when built in nature helps a
student in higher education by conducting high level researches of there course
(McCarthy, 2019).
 Safeguards from bad consequences- Academic misconduct may leads to serious
issues like rustication from school or university, penalty or fine. It can even lead to
imprisonment if the case is of major scale. So, it helps in preventing from tarnishing
of reputation and black spot on career (Masic, 2019).
 For honoring the hard work- Avoiding any kind of academic misconduct means the
person must have put efforts for conducting research and attempting an assignment
from its own learning. Innovative ideas used and hard work done for completing the

project is duly recognized and rewarded by professors. They give credits to students
for not copying the content and creating there own knowledge (Eaton and Christensen
Hughes, 2020).
 Ensures Learning- Whenever a person follows the rules and regulations of academic
integrity, it ensurers that individual is not copying the content or not taking advantage
of the leanings of some other person in in its own name. Then it tries to create its own
knowledge and frames the content by its personal ideas, which ultimately ensures that
person musty have learned something and it will be beneficial in future (Popoveniuc,
2018).
So, it is very important to adopt academic integrity for ensuring that the person have
due knowledge of the concepts it had studied in its life.
Discuss the implications of academic misconduct
Academic misconduct or dishonesty is an act in which a person do not comply with
the rules of integrity. It is an action of gaining or trying to gain or helps other in gaining
advantage of other persons content by citing it as its own. There actions or behavior are
against the norms of a academic school (Eaton and et.al., 2018) The various types or
examples of academic misconduct in a school or university are discussed below:.
 Plagiarism- It happens when someone uses the data, words, information, ideas or
some other material without acknowledging its real owner . It simply means to
intimate other author's words as its own which is a common practice practiced by
students in schools and colleges (Gervais, 2020).
 Cheating- It refers to giving or taking any kind of academic material with or without
the knowledge of owner as its own. Copying homework or tests in classes from other
students or letting them use there own content without giving reward of recognition
to the giver are considered as cheating. Using books or notes while performing test
without bringing in the notice of teacher are also treated ad cheating (Mulholland,
2020).
 Collusion- It is a situation when two or more students joins in same project without
informing the teacher and presents the work as individual report, then it is considered
as collusion (Khan, Mumtaz and Rakhman, 2020).
 Fabrication or Falsification- when student or any other person tries to present a data
which is either altered or not actually used in research then it is considered as a case
of Fabrication of Falsification. It is normal in reports of science students in which

they show the desired readings of there experiments rather than providing actual
results (Sefcik, Striepe and Yorke, 2019).
 Personation- It is a case of misrepresenting the identity of person. In this a person
tries to use the identity of other person and presents the work of that individual in its
own name. In some cases, people even uses the entity of other human and
impersonate in exam. There are many such cases that could be found related to
personation and all were punished (Chauhan, and et. al., 2018).
 Theft- It means to steal some other person's paper, book, project, notes, software and
many more. for the purpose of either coping it or for presenting that data as its own
content. One of the common case of stealing in academic contest is stealing exam
sheet for the purpose of knowing questions before test (Domingues, 2021).
The above discussed types falls under the category of academic misconduct. Students
must understand this that failing to comply with the rules of academic integrity can lead to
serious issues like termination from college as it negatively impacts the reputation and ethics
of institution and owner of knowledge and also the instructors could not asses the
performance of candidates accurately. The institutions can also impose penalty on the
student. On the other side, it implies to create a habit of cheating among people which makes
them reluctant to use there own knowledge or make efforts to perform there task. It is also not
good for the owner of data, as it implies to the stealing of intellectual property of some person
(Hurn and et.al., 2020).
Section 2
Reflect on the steps you have taken, and difficulties encountered in
producing the game for Assignment 2
Modern world in an era of innovation and creativity, in which only that person can
succeed who has full knowledge of the various concepts and techniques of its field. This will
only be a case if the person has created its own learning at the time if academic journey,
which directly means adopting of academic integrity in general and academic behavior.
Presently, academic misconduct is been practiced by students at large scale and has attracted
the concern of educational institutions towards it. They, on one side are worries about the
future of students, on the other hand, they have to take care about the rights of the actual
owners of the information. For fulling this purpose, I brought up an idea of producing a game

which can create awareness about academic integrity among students and is also felt
interesting by them. After conducting lot of research and toggling number of ideas, I decided
to design a Dart Game which will help in checking the knowledge of academic integrity in
students and making them aware about the importance of code of conduct in academic
behaviors. At last, I decided to design a Dart game to embrace the knowledge of academic
misconduct among students.
While designing the game, I faced a number of difficulties which are discussed below.
 The biggest difficulty was to select the type of game which is interesting and also
holds the capacity to fulfill my motive of creating awareness among students about
the impact of academic misconduct and importance of academic integrity.
 Next hindrance was sighting out questions through which knowledge related to
academic integrity and plagiarism can be judged.
 I felt it difficult to frame the steps and design of game. I designed the game number of
times as it was getting complex every time and I required a design which is easy to
understand.
 Framing of the dart board was also a difficult task.
Reflect on the skills you have learned this academic year and those
emphasized in producing your game
While I was producing this game, I came to know about number of skills which make
this process more interesting. Though some of the skills, I already had but some skills I
developed while designing this game. These attributes are mentioned below:
 Creative Skills- Initially, I did not had this skill. I got an opportunity to acquire this
skill while framing the board for this game. This was really an interesting part and
framing questions according that built this skill in me.
 Digital literacy Skills- I already had this skill but game helped me in enhancing this
when I encountered number of types of sites and designs for designing game.
 Time Management Skills- I was trying to inculcate this skill from long time but
could not. This game helped me attaining it as time for designing this game was very
less and I have to work as fast as I can by managing my time slot.
 Research Skills- I acquired this skill while conducting research related to type pf
game to be designed and questions to be asked from students.

 Communication Skills- I already possessed this skill but while playing this game I
got as chance to develop this skill as I had to communicate with each team member
playing that game.
 Organizing Skills- I got the chance to develop this skill while framing the design of
game as I had to organize whole data and procedure of game.
Conclusion
It can be concluded from the above report that it is academic integrity is very
important not only from the point of view of giving respect to authors of content but from the
point of view of students as well. It makes sure that they are creating knowledge while
conducting research of data. It helps in building there careers and personality too. Failure to
comply with the rules of integrity leads to academic misconduct. It leads to not only
tarnishing the rights of author of data but also leads to ruining the career of student.
Academic misconduct consists of plagiarism, fabrication, theft.

References
Alemán Juárez, A., Becerra Mariscal, A.E. and García Higuera, M.D.C., 2019. Revista de
Integridad Académica: an effort to foster academic integrity in Universidad
Panamericana. OPENAIRE.
Ayala-Enríquez, P. and et.al., 2020. From moral awareness to academic integrity in Latin
America. In A Research Agenda for Academic Integrity. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Chauhan, P.K. and et. al., 2018. Peer-based interventions on academic integrity: assessing
immediate and long term learning. Journal of Academic Ethics. 16(2). pp.133-149.
Daramola, D.S. and et.al., 2018. Observance of academic integrity in research data gathering
by lecturers in two selected Nigerian Universities.
Dixon, Z. and George, K., 2021. Monitoring uncharted communities of Crowdsourced
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Goodfellow, J. and et. al., 2018. Promoting and Supporting Academic Integrity at Sheridan
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Kumar, A., 2021. Plagiarism: Injurious to the academic health of the researcher and
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McCarthy, C., 2019. Understand how culture, language, practice impact international student
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Seaton, K.A., 2019. Laying groundwork for an understanding of academic integrity in
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